This application relates to carpet handling devices and more particularly to a powered device to assist in loading and unloading carpet rolls onto and off of a vehicle and particularly vans or pickup trucks.
Carpet installers often work in small crews of from one to four men. Such crews and the carpet to be installed may often be transported to an installation site by a small truck such as a pickup truck or a van. New carpet usually comes in rolls between about 10 and 15 feet in length about 24 to 36 or more inches in diameter and weighing in excess of 300 pounds. Such rolls are heavy and unwieldy and particularly difficult to load and unload manually on small trucks. Because the carpet is rather soft or "spongy" in character, the heavy rolls are especially hard to move lengthwise into and out of the truck bed even on roller conveyors.
A forklift truck is generally employed at a warehouse to load rolls of carpet onto a vehicle for delivery to a site for installation. If a forklift truck or other suitable handling equipment is not available at the warehouse to load the carpet rolls, personnel will be available. However, at the work site where the carpet is to be installed, a forklift truck generally is not available.
In the present invention, a plurality of motor powered rollers of sufficient width to accommodate a carpet roll are provided in the bed and on the tailgate of the transport vehicle. A support shelf positions the rollers to support one or more rolls of carpet so that the weight of only one roll is on the rollers at a time.
If necessary, one end of the roll of carpet to be loaded is placed on a roller adjacent the tailgate of the vehicle. With the motor turned on to drive the rollers, it is then relatively easy for two men or even one to guide the other end of the carpet roll support on a dolly and guide it as the roll is pulled onto the truck by the turning loader rollers. The carpet roll then may be moved to the side onto a shelf provided in the truck bed so that a second roll of carpet may be loaded. The carpet may be unloaded by reverse procedure. When carpet rolls are not carried in the truck, the roll loader can easily be moved completely into the truck bed area and the tailgate closed.
It is an object then of the present invention to provide a powered device for unloading a roll of carpet suitable for use in small trucks or vans.
It is a further object to provide a powered carpet roll handling device which can be easily installed and removed from small trucks.
It is a still further object to provide a powered carpet roll handling device by means of which a single operator may unload carpet rolls from a small truck without the aid of an assistant.